alice was director of the office of management and budget under president clinton and was first director of the congressional budget office. welcome to the program. >> thank you very much. >> now that i've terrified everyone, let's look at the short-term thinking here that led to the fiscal cliff. that in particular, if you think falling off the fiscal cliff can happen, senator allen simpson of simpson-bowles disagrees. >> they believe that no congress could be this stupid, and by god, they can. >> and by god, they can. in your career, have you ever seen congressional malpractice to this degree? >> i've never seen the country this polarized and the parties acting in such partisan and self-serving ways. we've got to get past this election and restore some sense of civility. get to work, both parties this fall, the problems that beset us. the problems aren't insoluble. with all respect to carmen rinehart, who made major contributions, there's nothing magic about some particular point where the economy goes downhill. but we're in danger -- we have endangered ourselves by taking on escalatin